The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1887-11-12
The Argentine Republic.
From Harperss Nagasins for Norem6en

From Harper's Magazine for Norem6er
During the last twenty-five years the
population of the Argentine Republic has
increased 154 per cent, while that of the
United States has increased but 70 per
cent, and the city of Buenos Ayres is
growing faster than Minneapolis or Den
yer. Last year it received 124, 900 immi-
grants from Europe, and the natural in
crease is very large. The newcomers are
mostly Italians and Basques, with a
sprinkling of Germans, Swiss, and Swedes.
To tempt the immigrants into the agricul-
tural districts the government has enacted
land laws even more liberal than ours
Each head of family is entitled to 250
acres free, and as much more as he desires
to purchase, to limit of 1900 acres, at
about seYenty-fiye cents AN acre in our
money. Or the settler may acquire 1900
acres free after five years by planting 200
acres to grain and twenty-four acres to
timber. Free transportation from Buenos
Ayres to the place of location is granted to
all settlers and their families, exemption
from taxation for ten years, and coloniza-
tinn societies are organized which issue
bonds guaranteed by the government, the
proceeds of which are loaned to the settlers
in sums not greater than $1,000, for five
years, with interest at six per cent, upon
the cultivation of certain amount of land
and the erection of a certain amount of i'm
provements The results of these benef-
cent laws are conspicuous. In 1886 near
ly nine hundred thousand acres of wild
land were ploughed and planted. One
firm in Buenos Ayres sold 1900 reapers
manufactured in the United States, and
other firms lesser number; elevators are
being erected upon the banks of the rivers,
from which wheat is loaded into vessels for
Brazil and Europe, and the average crop
was twenty-five bushels of wheat to the
acre.
In 1885 there were farty,one million
sheep in the United States, seventy-two
millions in Australia, and one hundred
millions in the Argentine Republic. We
have two-thirds of sheep to every in
habitant; in the Argentine Republic there
are twenty-five sheep, and in Uruguay
forty sheep, to every man, woman, and
child We have forty millions of horned
cattle to population of sixty millions; the
Argentine Republic and Uruguay have
thirty eight millions of cattle to popula-
ton of four and half millions. In Uru-
quay, with a population of five hundred
thousands souls, there are eight millions of
cattle, twenty millions of sheep, two mil
lion horses, or sixty head of stock for each
man, woman, and child. Fifteen million
dollars has been invested in wire fences in
Uruguay alone, and more than twice as
much in the Argentine Republic. In
either of the countries COW can be bought
for five dollars, a steer fattened for the
market for ten or twelve dollars, pair of
oxen for twenty-five dollars, a sheep for
fifty or sixty cents, an ordinary working
horse for eight or ten dollars, and road
ster for twenty-five, mule for fifteen dol
lars, and mare for whatever her hide will
bring. Mares are never broken to saddle
or harness, but are allowed to run wild in
the pastures from the time they are foaled
till they cease to be of value for breeding,
when they are driven to the sGlederos, or
slaughter-houses, and killed for their hides.
A man who would use mare under the
saddle or before wagon would be con-
sidered of unsound mind, There is a
superstition against 1t.
There used to be place called Pata-
gonia. 1t appears on our biographies now
as a s!drear and uninhabited waste, upon
which herds of wild horses and cattle Craze,
that are hunted for their flesh by a few
bands of savage Indians of immense
stature" | am quoting from school book
published in 1886, and in common use in
this country. The same geography gives
similar information about "the Argentine
Confederation" It makes the Argentines
roar with rage to call their country ethe
Argentine Confederation" 1t would be
just as polite and proper to call this the
Confederate States of America" A Bit
ter, bloody war was fought to wipe that
name off the map, but our publishers still
insist upon keeping it there. 1t is not a
confederation, it is Nation-one and in
separable, united we stand, dividedwe fall
and all that sort of thing-the Argentine
Republic. To call 1t anything else is ar
insult to the patriots who fought to make
it so, and a reflection upon our own intel
gence.
Several years ago Patagonia was divided
between Chill and the Argentine Republic
the Ministers from the United States t.
those two countries doing the carving
The SUBMITS of the Cordilleras were fixet
as the boundary lines. Chill took tn,